


Liberated

by orphan_account



Category: Mass Effect: Andromeda
Genre: Captured, F/M, I will add other characters as I see fit, Imprisonment, Kidnapped, King - Freeform, Princess - Freeform, Rapunzel AU, mentions of abuse in later chapters., not my fairy tale, not your fairy tale, twenty-two years missing
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-06-23
Updated: 2017-06-28
Packaged: 2018-11-17 23:31:03
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,978
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11279043
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Set in a Rapunzel AU. Darker version of the Rapunzel fairy tale.Rapunzel has spent her life in a tower with her mother Slo. When she finally gets up the courage to liberate herself, she runs into Reyes Vidal looking for Iliana Ryder who went missing. The two of them looks to find the princess everywhere, expect for in front of them.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> TW (trigger warning)- in later chapters, there are mentions of abuse.
> 
> I know. I need to get the rewrite of Beast of Eingana done, but this needed to be written. It just won't leave me alone. So here you go. I just love AUs. Don't you?
> 
> Also, I apologize for the short chapter. The ones in the future will be longer.

Reyes Vidal did not like being in castles. He didn’t like the way guards watched him with a careful eye or how they thought they were secretly following him from room to room as if he would steal something.

That was something he put long behind him when he realized that stealing would never get him the life he wanted. “Vidal, thank you for coming,” the man on the throne said. The man rose, coming down the steps to greet Reyes himself. “Thank you so much.”

“Your Majesty,” Reyes said, bowing low.

“Vidal, there’s no need for formality. My daughter was taken from me twenty-two years ago. I’ve tried searching every part of my kingdom. I’ve turned over stones and arrested people rumored to be responsible.” The king clenched his fist. “I want her found. Do you understand? I want my baby girl back.”

“Your majesty, if she was taken twenty-two years ago,” Reyes said, running a hand down over his mouth, “why haven’t you found her yet?” That sounded pompous. It sounded rude. He certainly hoped it wouldn’t come across as such.

“I have searched every stretch of this kingdom with every bit of manpower I can get. I have pulled in every man or woman who has been possibly seen with my daughter. Do you truly believe I haven’t done everything I can to find her?” Sentence by sentence, he grew more and more agitated. The king started to pace, running his hands through his hair and then in the empty space in front of him. “Please I’m desperate.”

Smuggling is how Reyes made ends meet. It certainly wasn’t stealing, but it was still a criminal activity. Did he really want an ex-thief finding his daughter? Easiest job ever. She was probably dead. After a few weeks of searching, he’ll go to the king with a teary eye and tell him that he couldn’t possibly find his daughter. Then he’ll get his payment and go into hiding for a few months with Zia and some alcohol. A few drinks, a few hours with fondling, and out the door she went.

“Please tell me what you know,” Reyes said, placing a sympathizing hand on the king’s shoulder. 

So the king recounted that night twenty-two years ago. His wife, who was still alive then, woke to find the baby missing from her bed and the window was open. “She was only a year old.”

Reyes nodded. “Her name?”

“Iliana. Iliana Ryder.”

Reyes was given half of the payment right there. He was escorted out of the castle and into the bustling village square. It felt more like he was being thrown out rather than respectfully walked out.

Fine. That was fine. He seriously needed a drink. Reyes attached the bag of gold coins to his belt and entered the tavern. 

“Some ale please,” he yelled over the din of noise. 

The man behind the bar passed him a tankard of ale. Reyes found a corner to sit and think. Princess Iliana Ryder had been missing for twenty-two years. Twenty-two years. She was dead. Had to be. There was no way in hell Iliana survived this entire time...unless…

No. It couldn’t be.

Reyes abandoned his drink on the table and went back to the bar. He slid two gold coins across the counter with the question, “Does a woman named Sloane Kelly inhabit this town?”

The man leaned across the counter to whisper the answer in his ear. What Reyes was told sent cold chills down to the bottom of his feet. He turned around, leaned against the edge--annoying patrons around him--placed a hand on his face and sighed. Now he would have to find the damn girl or she would end up worse than dead.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> TW: Mentions of abuse

Rapunzel was up before Mother, cooked her breakfast and brought her tea in bed. The tall woman, whose mismatched eyes bore into her very soul, took the tea from her without a word. “Breakfast is ready,” the young woman said quietly. Mother only nodded and dismissed her.

Unsure of what to do next, she grabbed her hook and yarn. She sat at the window and continued to crochet her blanket. It was a labor of love when she started to shake around Mother. The woman loved her, that Rapunzel could tell. But Mother showed her love funny. Dark, purple circles peppered her body, but she was careful not to say anything about it. It didn’t matter how much it hurt her to move her body or perform basic tasks.

Mother came tromping down the stairs fully dressed, ignoring the breakfast Rapunzel had set out on the table. “I am going into town for a while. I expect this place to be as spotless as it is now when I get back.” The young woman nodded. 

Mother gripped the handle of her basket with tight fingers. “Hair,” she snapped.  

Rapunzel, careful not to piss off her mother anymore than she already had, slung her brown hair over the hook right outside the curved window. She watched the woman deftly scale the side of the tower, felt the tug of her hair to pull it back up. Rapunzel sat against the wall, too heavy to move.

The young woman shed her dress to stare at herself in the mirror. She was tiny, pale and skinny. Bright purple bruises spotted her body. Some in the shape of fingerprints, others the size of an orange. Maybe a few of them would fully heal in Mother’s absence.

She had a plan to run away. Use her hair the way Mother did, but just thinking of it had her body vibrating in fear. Where would she go? Or who would she run into? Rapunzel liked to pretend she was some lost daughter and Mother wasn’t her biological parent.   
  
Still shaking, Rapunzel whipped away the rug, throwing it into a corner. A crude charcoal drawing underneath showed her bedroom, the kitchen and her latrine. Lines showed where she would head first-straight into the bedroom-a tangled mess showing her haste in putting clothes in her knapsack, then the kitchen for food and then out the window. Would her hair hold tied to the hook? The only difference in her and Mother using it, Rapunzel was used like an anchor on the other end.  


But would Mother find her if she disappeared? Before she went out that window down the rope of her own hair, she sat very, very still in the middle of the room, right on top of her map and stared off into space, panicking very quietly to herself. If the bruises were anything to go by, if she went missing and Mother caught up to her… she was scared to find out what the woman would do.

But if she stayed…

Rapunzel ran around in a mild panic, filling the knapsack of food and the only other dress she owned.

  
Grabbing her knapsack and tying it to her waist, Rapunzel cut her hair at the chin before she could change her mind and tied the heavy cord to a lantern post above the window-she desperately hoped it would hold-and jumped, scaling the side of her tower. 

A dark haired man sat on a horse at the bottom, gaping at her as her bare feet finally touched grass, "Well... I was going to rescue you," he said after a moment of silence.  
  
“Bit slow on the uptake aren’t you?” Rapunzel asked, glaring at him. She half expected the rest of her hair to thump behind her. The airy, lightness of her head was a new sensation for her and she couldn’t decide if she liked it or not.  
  
“I think I was going to rescue you,” the man muttered to himself. He brought out a rolled parchment, unrolled it and scrutinized it while glancing at her.  
  
Rapunzel backed away, wishing she’d brought a heavy pan with her or something. She had no weapon against this crazy man. “Well, were you or weren’t you? There isn’t a ‘maybe’ in this case.”  
  
The man swung off his horse. He approached her, she backed away, he thought better of it and backed off. “Is your name Iliana?”  
  
“Pretty, but no. Name’s Rapunzel. Look, crazy, I need to get out of here before Mother comes back and locks me up in that tower again. Can you take me to the next town?”  
  
The man scrutinized her again. “You...ah,” the man said, rolling the parchment again. “I need you to come with me.”  
  
“No, I don’t know you and I need to get out of here.” Rapunzel looked around as if Mother was going to pop out of the heavily dense woods.   
  
If Crazy wasn’t going to help her, then she would have to help herself. Rapunzel was by no means a strong or big woman. She barely topped 5’3” and at a hundred and four pounds, she wasn’t doing any heavy lifting. So when she pushed on Crazy’s chest and he stumbled back, she was surprised it worked.  
  
But it didn’t keep her rooted for long. Rapunzel clambered into the saddle, barely holding on when the horse registered her weight. “See ya!” she yelled with a whoop.  
  
Now if only she could control the horse. It continued galloping, whacking her with branches and leaves. Scratches appeared on her arms, drops of blood staining her dress. Rapunzel tried to pull at the strings but no response. “Crap, crap, crap!” Luckily her knapsack was attached to her or she would’ve lost it already. “Stop! Please stop!” Rapunzel kicked the horse’s sides in rhythm to her words.  
  
The horse suddenly reared. Rapunzel was thrown from the saddle, landing on her back heavily. It knocked the breath from and she lay there wheezing.  
  
“Are you crazy?” Crazy asked as he ran up behind her. If he caught up wit her, then she hadn’t gone very far.  
  
Crap…  
  


“No. I need to escape and not gallivant off into the woods with some unknown man,” Rapunzel wheezed, standing up with difficulty. “Do you underst-” There were things she would tell him, but the bruises underneath her dress would remain her secret. 

She stood up to her full height, which wasn’t much. The man in front of her had golden skin, golden brown eyes and black hair. He wore two daggers on his belt. How quickly could she get to the weapon before he killed her?

“I’m not going to harm you,” the man said, as if reading her mind.

“I don’t know that.”

“My name is Reyes Vidal. I was sent by the king to-”

“I don’t care what you were sent by to who to do what. I want to get out of here. I want away from that tower.” Rapunzel felt for anything that could be used as a weapon. Why didn’t she grab something heavy from the towel? She dug in the knapsack, her hand wrapping around something hard and round.

It was an apple. An apple was not going to hurt him. “Please. I am looking for someone.”

“Haven’t you noticed I was locked in a tower? I cut off my own hair to get out of it. The last thing I want to do is help you look for someone.” Rapunzel sighed, put the apple away and started to walk away from him.

“The closest town is about three days away,” Reyes said.

Rapunzel stopped as if he stepped on her now non-existent hair. “It’s what?”

“Look, I’m being paid to look for a young girl. And she could be in danger. You need to get to town. I’ll take you there, but you have to help me find her.”

Rapunzel closed her eyes. If he ever laid a hand on her, she could always take his dagger and… “Yeah, alright.” 

A smile ghosted across Reyes’ face for a moment.


End file.
